Court faults US no-fly list’s rules

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PORTLAND, Ore. — The US government deprived 13 people on its no-fly list of their constitutional right to travel and gave them no adequate way to challenge their placement on the list, a federal judge said Tuesday in the nation’s first ruling finding the no-fly list redress procedures unconstitutional.

US District Court Judge Anna Brown’s decision says the procedures lack a meaningful mechanism for people to challenge their placement on the list.

Brown said placement on the no-fly list turns routine travel into an ‘‘odyssey,’’ and some of those on the list have been subjected to detention and interrogation by foreign authorities.

Brown had expressed skepticism at the government’s arguments in several court hearings in 2013 and this year. US government attorneys cautioned the judge not to engage in ‘‘policymaking’’ were she to rule against them.

The ruling shows Brown heeded that caution. She did not create a new procedure for those on the list to challenge their placement. Instead, Brown said the Department of Homeland Security needs to find a way to disclose to those on the list the unclassified information used to place them there.